Survey shows Apple offers most-satisfying mobile shopping experience

Respondents to a new survey gave Apple the highest satisfaction scores for its mobile commerce experience, with online retailer Amazon coming in second.

The study from ForeSee (via VentureBeat) collected responses from 3,000 visitors to apps and mobile sites for the top 40 U.S. retailers' websites based on revenue. Apple received the top score of 85 for its mobile experience, faring better than its own Web experience, which scored 83.

Amazon was a close second with a satisfaction score of 84. Dell came in third with a score of 78, and Netflix and eBay tied for fourth with 77.

As the adoption of smartphones increases, more consumers are using them to access retailer websites,” said Larry Freed, President and CEO of the analytics firm. “More and more, there is expectation that companies will address the mobile environment in ways that are effective and user-friendly. Mobile commerce is still relatively new and there is a lot of room for innovation and improvement."

Respondents generally ranked their mobile commerce experiences as less satisfactory than Web experiences, though Apple was a rare exception.

“The gap between mobile experience and web experience is an opportunity for retailers as much as it is a liability. We know consumer expectations will only continue to grow, and right now Amazon and Apple are setting a very high bar,” he continued.

Credit: ForeSee

The survey also found that 34 percent of online shoppers use their mobile phones to research purchases. 15 percent of respondents said they made purchases directly from their phone, up from 11 percent last year.

19 percent of shoppers said they used their mobile phones to compare prices while shopping in a store. Amazon sparked a controversy last month when it began offering discounts for items to customers who used its Price Check shopping app to check prices while at a physical store.

An earlier report from ForeSee released late last month found Apple to be the top computers and electronics retailer and the second overall in terms of customer satisfaction.

A separate study revealed that iOS users account for the majority of mobile e-commerce transactions. Retail analysis firm RichRelevance noted a whopping 92 percent of online non-desktop sales last December as having been made from iOS devices.

If you average out the two Amazon wins. That said, I don't find Amazon's site near as satisfying due it being so busy and question the results when Dell is ranked so high despite one of the most unsatisfying experiences you can create.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

Respondents generally ranked their mobile commerce experiences as less satisfactory than Web experiences, though Apple was a rare exception.

Is this the part where SlickMe will say Apple is in the minority? (sorry 'bout that)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolipsismX

If you average out the two Amazon wins. That said, I don't find Amazon's site near as satisfying due it being so bust and question the results when Dell is ranked so high despite one of the most unsatisfying experiences you can create.

Well, Dell uses flash on their lap/desktop site, but when accessed from my iPhone it offers a native app, and after I choose 'no thanks' I was presented with an iPhone optimized page. (this is the consumer site, not business) Stupid thing is, when entering 'Tablet' in the search field I get a 'page not available' - LOL. <edit, the search field always gives an error on my iPhone, except for their 'business website'>

Is this the part where SlickMe will say Apple is in the minority? (sorry 'bout that)

Well, Dell uses flash on their lap/desktop site, but when accessed from my iPhone it offers a native app, and after I choose 'no thanks' I was presented with an iPhone optimized page. (this is the consumer site, not business) Stupid thing is, when entering 'Tablet' in the search field I get a 'page not available' - LOL. <edit, the search field always gives an error on my iPhone, except for their 'business website'>

I don't think I have any experience at least none I can recall positively or negatively for Amazon for their mobile site but I have enjoyed the level of service they have offered for being a faceless, internet-only warehouse store.

I have used Apple's mobile app and it's simple to use. The ability to buy a product in a store with the app without interacting with any employees was very handy. I'm not sure if this would get counted in the survey but the mobile app is a great way to set up Genius appointment.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

If you average out the two Amazon wins. That said, I don't find Amazon's site near as satisfying due it being so bust and question the results when Dell is ranked so high despite one of the most unsatisfying experiences you can create.

If you're averaging then you should do a weighted average, where mobile is assigned a smaller weight corresponding to its smaller share (which wouldn't change the results in this case, but could in principle).

You question the results of a survey with 3000 respondents based on what, your own experience? Yeah, you have a solid point there...

If you average out the two Amazon wins. That said, I don't find Amazon's site near as satisfying due it being so busy and question the results when Dell is ranked so high despite one of the most unsatisfying experiences you can create.

Actually, if you average the scores, the two companies are identical. Differences smaller than the margin of error don't count.

They got 3000 responses for mobile and 8500 responses for online. There is no reference to how many of those responses were for each store, but it is unlikely that more than 10% visited either Apple or Amazon. That means 300 visitors for mobile and 850 for online reported for each vendor.

For a 95% confidence level, the margin of error for the mobile numbers is over 5% and online is about 3.5%. Even if you use the combined numbers, the error is plus or minus 3%.

And that assumes that the samples are random.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

Agreed. But then again, one has to be an impressionable idiot to pass on a good deal just because one doesn't like the looks of the vendor.

lol, well yea...I use Amazon all the time...but ugly site is ugly.

Speaking of ugly...I had to make a logo for this DJ friend of a friend of mine...I was procrastinating so when he hit me back up I threw something together in like 2 minutes...hideous IMO...amatuerish...too amateurish even for a halfhearted job ...so once he saw I was back on track I took more time to make an IMO better one.

You can still see the old design because Apple never updates everything at once, be it product info pages or store pages.

The new pages have that big image of the product and the button to click to spec a machine out. This after you've ALREADY CLICKED THE BUTTON TO GET TO THE MACHINE'S PAGE on the home Store screen.

The old design just brought you to the screen where you'd pick your size. The middleman is completely pointless.

I agree, I don't understand the point of the middle page they've added in. Does anyone know what they're aiming for with this? Like you said, is there some other coming change that will allow this to make sense?

I agree, I don't understand the point of the middle page they've added in. Does anyone know what they're aiming for with this? Like you said, is there some other coming change that will allow this to make sense?

I was showing someone an iMac the other day on their work PC. They clicked on Store, the iMac, then Buy Now (which should lead them to the configuration) but they get they mis-splash-page that requires to press Select an iMac to continue.

It didn't work with their version of IE. Nothing happened when you clicked the link. The best I could do was have them hit Tech Specs to see a comparison which lists the base prices, but even that wasn't accurate because the Education Store had already shown then a lower price. It made Apple look bad and ruined the point.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

A separate study revealed that iOS users account for the majority of mobile e-commerce transactions. Retail analysis firm RichRelevance noted a whopping 92 percent of online non-desktop sales last December as having been made from iOS devices.

The most astonishing fact is at the end - Apple have 92% market share of mobile shopping.

This despite the fact that Android claims to have the largest market share of smartphones?

This could lead to unemployment in the US, particularly in NYC, where hundreds of Chinese expats make some spare change by lining up to buy a product made in China so that they can ship it back to China for resale.